Average discount from list price

What is the average SaaS discount from list price in 2026?

Companies are still securing an average discount of 33.8% off list price, virtually unchanged from 34% in the prior period. That consistency shows a persistent gap between what vendors first quote and what informed buyers actually pay. But the stable overall average hides real movement underneath: Collaboration & Productivity and Customer Service saw sharp increases in negotiated savings this quarter, while CRM and Analytics Tools moved the other way.

• A ~34% gap between list price and actual price is now a persistent pattern, not a one-off: With the overall average holding steady across periods, this isn't a temporary market condition – it reflects how SaaS vendors price by default, expecting negotiation, which is exactly why so many companies overpay simply by accepting a first quote.
• Collaboration & Productivity saw the biggest jump: Average discounts in this category rose 10 percentage points, from 28% to 38%, the largest movement of any category in either direction.
• ERP and AI remain the highest-discount categories, despite both dipping slightly: ERP (44%) and Artificial Intelligence (43%) still offer the largest discounts of any category, even though both eased back slightly from the prior period.
• CRM and Analytics Tools saw the sharpest declines: Both fell 6 points, suggesting less room to negotiate in these categories than there was previously, or steadier list pricing from vendors in these spaces.
• Design remains the toughest category to negotiate, but is improving: Design's average discount rose 4 points to 19%, though it remains by far the lowest discount of any category tracked.

Why generic, out-of-the-box software benchmarks aren't enough

Knowing that the average discount is 33.8%, or that ERP typically discounts more than Design, is a useful starting reference point – but applying a single average figure directly to your own negotiation can be misleading. Real pricing varies based on factors a generic benchmark can't capture: regional pricing differences, the specific terms and length of a contract, deal size and whether a product is priced per seat or per usage. A company negotiating a usage-based AI contract in one region, for example, may see a very different fair price than the category average suggests. Pricing benchmarks that reflect real, comparable transaction data – not just a category-wide average – are what actually tell you whether a specific quote, for your specific deal, is optimal.

Data source: These insights are derived from over $75bn of global processed spend managed by Vertice in 2026.

‍